[erlang-questions] Time for OTP to be Renamed?

[Richard A. O'Keefe]

On 14/02/2014, at 12:14 PM, Pieter Hintjens wrote:
> 
> The C language had for many years a separate set of tools called
> "libraries". At some stage a set of these became "standard" and were
> incorporated into the ANSI definition of the language. The libraries
> still exist, with their original weird names. However we don't speak
> of C / stdlib. We speak of C99, perhaps.

Some of the C99 libraries are not required in a "free-standing
environment", so you have to be aware that just having the
language is no guarantee they'll be there.

Some of the C99 libraries are optional _everywhere_.

Some library facilities that we take for granted as "C"
programmers are in fact part of the POSIX or Windows
environment, and _are_ missing on some other platforms.
You have to be acutely aware that you are not using "C99"
you are using "C99+POSIX".  sigaction() is not part of C.

Some parts of "standard C++" that a colleague of mine uses
heavily have been deprecated as part of the current standard;
C++ is still C++, but what _was_ part of the library gets you
nagged whenever you try to use it.

Oh, and in C you _defintely_ have to be aware that there
is a <stdlib.h>; call exit(0) without it and your compiler
will not be happy.  "stdlib" is still on C programmer's lips.